The Secrets That You Keep
by clonecept
Summary: Everyone has a secret. Also posted on clonecept[.]tumblr[.]com
1. Part I - Part V

**I.**

The truth was, no one was ever supposed to find the cure. It was all a show - Ethan Duncan and his cipher, the floppy disk, everything. But there, over a thousand miles away, she stared down the scope of her microscope, watching with avid fascination as the cells mutated. She fumbled for her phone and swore softly.

DYAD was watching. DYAD was always watching.

She slipped the slide out from under the microscope and pushed it back into storage. The centrifuge hummed gently, its whirring dying down as she turned to it. She grabbed the bag on the back of her chair and slung it over a shoulder, bringing it over to the centrifuge which opened with a hiss.

Vials. Three in total which she slipped into her bag. Her heart pounded in her chest as she strode out of the lab.

"Dr Cormier!" a security guard shouted. "Stop!"

She stopped and half-turned, dread filling a knot in her throat.

"You forgot your phone," the guard said, holding out the black DYAD-issued mobile phone.

She let out a silent sigh of relief. "Thank you." She took it and walked straight through the front doors of DYAD, her boots a harsh and rapid staccato against the granite tile.

Her hand dug into her bag and she pulled out a neon green phone, speed-dialling the first number on her list. "Cosima?" she breathed through a smile. The smile trembled and then slid from her face. "Sarah - what's happened?"

**II.**

The silver briefcase hung heavily from her hand as she lifted it up and set it on the table, sliding it across. Her eyes darted to the fleeting bulge under the jacket of the man in front of her, alarm bells ringing in her head.

"This is it, then?" He turned the case and opened it up, checking the contents. He shut it and grabbed it by the handle.

"Oui." Her lips pressed together resolutely as she stared impassively back at the man, willing herself not to flinch.

But this was Siobhan's man - Benjamin - whom she had accused of defecting from the cause. He had every right to be as distrustful of her as she of him.

"We'll get it to her," he said with a small nod, sliding the case off the table. "Don't worry." He handed it off to a man who took it reverently.

Delphine forced herself to smile. "Okay." She watched as the case disappeared out of view, out of the empty hanger they had agreed to meet in.

Benjamin turned back to her. "Now the other part of our deal." He pulled out his gun, safety off, and pointed it at her.

**III.**

"Cosima." She leaned close, shaking the girl by the shoulder into wakefulness. "Hey, wake up."

Cosima groaned, her eyes fluttering open. "What?"

"Special delivery for you," Sarah said, pulling the silver suitcase closer so that Cosima could have a look. "Delphine sent us some new material."

Cosima frowned as she slowly sat up, patting the sheets for her glasses. "Shit, Sarah... I don't know if..."

"Oy oy, no talking like that," Sarah said, plucking one of the vials from the case. She loaded up a syringe of the clear, viscous fluid. "Reckon Felix would be better at this," she muttered softly.

"Or Tony," Cosima pointed out, taking the moment to scan the apartment for evidence of either of the boys.

Sarah laughed, "Yeah. They went to grab some beer to celebrate."

Cosima flinched as Sarah sunk the needle deep into her arm. "A little early for that, don't you think?"

Sarah pulled the needle out and shrugged. "Living is a good enough reason to celebrate, inn't?"

"Yeah," Cosima said with a sigh, wistful. She pulled the case closer to her and felt the indent of where the vial was nestled.

Sarah glanced up as she set about tossing the needle into Tony's sharps container. "She's fine. And thinking of you, probably."

Cosima frowned as she picked at the foam.

"Whatcha got?"

The foam piece broke free, revealing a second layer. "It's..." She dug out a USB drive and held it up. "A USB drive?"

**IV.**

"Seriously, Sarah," Cosima sighed. "Why the fuck would Delphine send us an encrypted USB drive?"

"Beats me," Sarah muttered, nursing her beer. "What the bloody hell is on the thing, anyway?"

"Fuck if I know," Cosima sighed, letting her hand drop on the countertop beside her laptop. "How did she even get something like this?"

"Well, she must've sent it with good reason." Sarah frowned from where she sat on the couch.

"Y'think?"

"Oy, reckon Scott would be able to decrypt it or whatever?"

"Maybe," Cosima said doubtfully, looking at the USB drive in her fingers. "I'm not sure if I'd want him to though. I mean, what if it's sensitive information?"

"What, y'think that being part of an illegal cloning trial isn't sensitive enough?"

"Fair point," Cosima muttered, resting her head on her hand. "I dunno, I'll ask, but it's not really his area of specialty."

"Well, at least it's a good place to start looking, anyway."

Cosima could do nothing but concede and picked up her phone.

**V.**

Sarah took a swig as she lounged on the couch. She tilted her head to look at the screen of Cosima's laptop and the mysterious USB stick that jutted out from its side.

A loud banging at the door jolted her into an upright position. "Comin'," she half-shouted, remembering to keep her voice from carrying over to where Cosima was sleeping. She pulled the screwdriver from its slot and yanked the door open.

"Uh... hey..." Scott mumbled. He shifted awkwardly on his feet and adjusted the strap of his backpack. "Cosima said..."

"Yeah, yeah, come in," Sarah said gruffly, waving him inside. "Just over there. Don't wake her 'til you know something, yeah?"

She shut the door and wandered after him, watching him with a curious eye as he set up his laptop and other paraphernalia on the coffee table. To his credit, he wasted no time in pleasantries, although he did accept a beer when offered.

"Hey Scott," Cosima sat up, squinting as she put her glasses on. "What's going on, guys?"

Sarah's gaze snapped up. "Oy oy, sleeping beauty," she grinned. "Just trying to figure out Delphine's encoded message."

"Well, not exactly," Scott interjected, bent over his screen and frowning. "Whatever encryption she used is... well I've never seen anything like it before."

Cosima frowned as she slowly eased herself out of bed to see what Scott was looking at. "What do you mean?"

"Well, it's got to be a quantum level encryption algorithm." Scott said distractedly. "I mean, it's definitely far more advanced than all the other stuff I've tried."

"Oy, English, yeah?"

Scott glanced up as if surprised that Sarah was still standing there. "Well, I've tried every other encryption method possible but... the only thing left —"

"— is a private level encryption algorithm that is only available at the military level," Cosima finished. She sunk down next to Scott and tried not to think about the last time that she was decoding something on this couch. She stared dully at the screen. "God, Delphine, what did you _find_?"


	2. Part VI - Part X

**VI.**

"Easy there, dreadlocks," Tony smirked, wielding the needle in his hand, "it stings a little but the faster this goes in, the easier it is."

Cosima punched him in the arm, holding her sleeve up with her hand. "It had to be needles," she grumbled.

"Yeah, well, intramuscular's better than having stuff shoved up your —"

"No one needs to hear that, Tony," Cosima glared, then grimaced as Tony pushed the needle in deep. "God damnit," she hissed.

Tony pulled the needle out and replaced it with a cottonball, grinning. "Congratulations, you survived to live another day."

"That doesn't even make sense."

They both turned as the door slid open and Sarah trudged inside. She pushed her hair back in agitation, a movement that was not lost on her clones.

"What happened to you?" Tony prompted.

"Cosima, I..." Sarah turned to Cosima, sinking down on the couch and shaking her head.

"Sarah, what happened?"

"It's Delphine." The look on Sarah's face said everything that she couldn't.

The bottom of Cosima's stomach plummeted. "No. No. No, she promised. She..." She fought in Tony's arms, struggling to get up, beating his chest ineffectually. Her voice cracked the way her heart broke.

"She said she'd come back."

**VII.**

The floor rattled gently as her eyes fluttered into consciousness, steel scraping concrete. She inhaled the stale scent of rust, blood, and oil. The toe of a boot nudged her swollen belly.

"Oy, get up," a soldier ordered, hauling her upright.

She looked blearily around as she was pulled to her feet, her boots scraping against the damp floor. She stumbled, unable to re-balance herself with her hands cuffed to her waist, but the soldier held fast to her.

"Move."

She marched forward, out of the steel wall cage, flanked by the identical soldiers - God's abominations. Pain lanced through her body and she stumbled again. Warmth trickled down her leg.

Her heart pounded as she doubled over in pain. The soldiers let her go, realising what had happened.

"Get her to medical," the soldier shouted, hauling her up. "C'mon."

"But —"

"There is no way that she could be faking _this_."

The soldier gritted his teeth as they half-lifted, half-dragged her to the medical facility. They guided her as gently as they could to the exam room and left her there for the medical staff to rally and take over.

She fought, but in the end they won with the drugs on their side. She frowned, trying to focus on the blurred faces hovering over her.

"Do not… touch…"

**VIII.**

Cosima bent down to reverently pick up the USB drive she had thrown across the room five minutes previously. Six months had done a lot of good on her - the cure got her back on her feet and the hollowness she felt in her bones ebbed away, if only slightly.

She slumped down on the couch. She was practically under house arrest with the Felix, Sarah, and Tony (and occasionally Alison) buzzing around her. Six months was a long time. Half a year that she didn't have before but she had now because of…

It was terrifyingly empty. She wasn't sure if it was the fear that she was going to commit suicide out of pure desolation that caused them to hover, or the fact that she was the only one with any hope of finding out what was on the USB drive.

She smiled bitterly at it. Secrets she had in her hands but she could not open. It may as well be her proverbial Pandora's Box.

"Hey, you hungry?" Sarah called from the kitchen. "Y'want a cuppa?"

Cosima waved a hand. _Yes? Or no?_ She didn't particularly care. She leaned back turning the USB drive in her hands.

"Cosima," Sarah said, setting down a steaming mug of tea on the coffee table in front of her, "it's been six months."

Cosima glanced at the mug. "I know," she said dully.

She frowned as she turned over the USB key. The black aluminum electroplating was scratched. She chipped at it with her nail, scraping off the thin layer.

"What're you…" Sarah trailed off, stepping back as she watched Cosima furiously scrub black shavings off the USB drive until it was entirely red. Clearly marked - etched - into the side was a string of characters.

Hurriedly, Cosima grabbed her laptop and plugged it in, entering key combination after key combination. "So you know how I found out about the patents?"

"Yeah…" Sarah cautiously sat down on the couch beside Cosima. She peered at the USB key that was engraved with an alphanumeric sequence she didn't quite understand.

"Well, there was a sequence - the fertility sequence - that made us - well, _me_ - sick. Ethan helped decode it with his cipher but it wasn't actually a cure," Cosima explained, her hands waving intermittently as her fingers flew over the keyboard so fast that Sarah could barely keep up with it. "I mean, it was a genetic sequence that made the autoimmune disease possible but," she said, holding up a hand, "it needed to be reversed and synthesized into a cure."

"Alright…" Sarah murmured, trying to keep up. "So what's this got to do with," she leaned over to look at the lettering on the USB key, "324b21 101010?"

Cosima looked over at Sarah. "324b21 is me. And the patent was in binary." She exhaled slowly and hesitated over the Return button. "I have no idea what this is going to be about, so you better hold on to your hat. You ready?"

"Yeah," Sarah lied, inhaling sharply as Cosima let her finger fall.

Her screen turned black as the decryption process loaded, characters scrolling across the screen in seemingly random order. The screen flashed.

"Holy watershed."

"Holy shite."

**IX.**

It was a tiny thing, cradled in her arms as she cooed to it softly before it was ripped from her hands. She hissed and tried to hold on but the drugs made her weak and disoriented. They held her easily to the table until the anesthesia took effect.

Visitation was regimented, like a dose of sympathy mixed with human need. She slumped in the corner of her room, bare, save for the pit in the corner. It was dark, but darkness was hardly something that she was unaccustomed to. She was the light.

One day, one day.

She scraped the stone with her ragged fingernails, counting one more day. Maybe tomorrow she would be able to see her child.

_Sasha_, she called her child.

A scuffling could be heard on the other side of the door. Her ears pricked and she held herself taunt, ready to move at a moment's notice. The shadows that passed through under the door shifted rapidly and she held up a hand to shield her eyes from the light when the door abruptly opened, the ghastly sound like an alarm.

"Helena," a hand reached out and gently took hers. The handcuffs fell from her wrists. "Come."

She stood unhesitatingly and followed.

The angel had finally come for her.

**X.**

She stared down the barrel of the gun, exhaling slowly, calmly, as she raised her hands in a gesture of peace.

"Paul," she said softly, carefully, "you and I are on opposite sides of the same coin."

"Who are you with? Topside? Leda? DYAD?" His hand shook imperceptibly as he adjusted his grip, his finger a hairsbreadth from pulling the trigger. "You're definitely not Castor."

"All of them," she said, shaking her head slowly, "none of them."

She grit her teeth and kept her jaw squared.

"Who sent you? Marion? Siobhan?"

She shook her head again. "Neither."

Paul hesitated and she took advantage of the split second.

She slammed the magazine release on the Glock, and pulled the slide free from the gun in a fluid motion, stepping into Paul and used the momentum to throw him over her shoulder. She swiftly knocked him out with the butt of his own gun and searched his body.

Helena stared at her with wide eyes, filled with bemusement.

She pulled on the lab coat, reminiscent, and threw one for Helena to put on. Her lips twitched into an shape that felt foreign to her, one she thought had been forgotten in simpler times. But seeing that face again…

Helena's grin, so familiar but so different, looked up at her.

"You act like puppy, but you are wolf."


	3. Part XI - Part XV

**XI.**

They hurried down the hallways, their lab coats billowing behind them. Helena stopped but Delphine's hands gently guided her toward the exit.

"Go. I will get her."

Helena nodded, regarding Delphine with a thoughtful expression. "Thank you."

"Go straight down. There's an extraction team waiting for you."

And she did, dispatching a guard on her way down who was looking at them a little too suspiciously. And suddenly, the alarm went off. They looked at each other with dismay.

"Go!"

They darted in opposite directions as the guards assembled to the exit points. Helena clicked the safety off on the pistol she liberated from the fallen soldier and headed down to the exit that Delphine had instructed. She glanced back as Delphine disappeared into the ward where her child was being held.

She reappeared moments later, a bundle in her arms, swaddled in a bulletproof vest. She darted down the hallway, sliding in around the corner and urging Helena forward.

They ran, heels and hearts pounding as they stayed low the ground as the guards began to open fire. Helena paused to fire behind them, giving them a scant few seconds of cover as they passed into an intersection.

"Descendez!"

Helena scrambled into position where she had fallen to the ground, the gun spinning out of her hand. She looked down at her feet where Delphine lay, the bundle held tight and safe in her arms.

"Take her." Delphine held the wailing baby forward, trembling as she pushing the bundle into Helena's hands. She pulled the gun from her belt and twisted around.

"Go!"

Helena didn't need to be told again.

**XII.**

_The camera focussed and unfocussed as she leaned down over it and then sat down, settling into the chair with a nervous smile gracing her features. She pushed her curly blonde hair out her eyes thoughtlessly._

_"Cosima," she began. Her eyelids flickered as she looked down for a moment. "I'm sorry." Her hand fiddled with the lapel of her white lab coat._

_"This isn't how I wanted to say goodbye but…" she sighed and bowed her head, unruly hair falling into her eyes again. "This is goodbye." Her lips pressed together in the strangest semblance of a smile._

_She licked her lips and took in a breath. "I've found the cure - for you to use at your discretion," she said, frowning. "I hope it's enough. I've included all the documentation for it, everything that I could find. Dr. Duncan's lost data, Dr. Leekie's experiments… Everything that I've found - it's all here. You just need to unlock it."_

_Her hand covered the camera, tilting it down just slightly which gave a brief view of her desk - Canadian passport, driver's license, and something dark in the corner covered by her thumb. She pulled her hand away hesitantly. She peered into the camera with a warm but sad smile._

_"Je t'aime, Cosima. Mon amour. Au revoir."_

**XIII.**

"Oy! A little help here?"

Cosima blinked up from her phone and tossed it on the seat beside her, climbing back to help Sarah. She nearly froze when she saw the blood on the bulletproof vest but said nothing as she threw the arm over her shoulder and helped support Helena up the ramp.

They eased Helena into a seat and the bulletproof vest fell away, revealing as squealing baby.

"Holy. Shit. Sarah." Cosima stared at the baby and then looked up at Sarah. "Did you have any idea?"

"None," Sarah said, shaking her head.

Cosima looked around. "Where's Tony?"

Sarah's jaw clenched. "He went back." She stepped out of the way as Felix ran over with the first aid kit.

"You alright, Helena?"

Helena waved him off tiredly. "Just sprain ankle." She looked at Cosima and then Sarah. "Wolf-puppy freed me and Sasha. Brother sestra is helping her."

"What?" Sarah looked at Helena dumbfoundedly. "Who…?"

Felix frowned, backing away from Helena and gave Sarah a meaningful look. "If there's even the smallest chance that she could be alive, could she mean…?"

"No, Cosima - wait - !"

But Cosima was gone and so was Sarah's gun.

"Shite."

**XIV.**

_Six, five, four._

Every bullet counted.

She glanced over her shoulder as she pushed her way down the hallway to freedom. By now the extraction team should have received Helena and gotten her to safety.

There was certainly no mistaking which side she stood on with six soldiers on her tail and her white lab coat stained with sticky red blood. She stumbled a little, the pain overtaking her.

"Easy there, goldilocks, we gotcha," a deep voice said, tugging her down. He fired his gun, watching with grim satisfaction as the soldiers held back for cover and grabbed her arm, throwing it over his shoulder. "Let's blow this popsicle stand."

Delphine managed a weak grin as she was lead out.

"Hey dreadlocks, you wanna give us a hand?"

Her head jerked up and her gaze locked.

Cosima's gaze ducked away as she threw Delphine's other arm over shoulder, her face pale as her lips pressed together. She looked strange in the bulletproof vest - Paul's bulletproof vest, she recognised with a start, covered in her blood.

Delphine leaned on her with a wordless sigh, staggering. Blood loss. She frowned as she looked over at the bespectacled face, trying to focus.

"You got her?"

Cosima nodded.

"Good, 'cause we've got company," Tony said, letting go of Delphine. He took aim behind them.

_Three, two, one._

**XV.**

Cosima's hand gripped the edge of the nearest thing she could reach, trying to stay upright, but the weight was too much and she was too weak. She panted heavily where she sat on the floor, Delphine's arm still hooked around her shoulder, and looked over at Delphine for the first time, the nearby strobing red light colouring the blood black. The stomp of combat boots on the tarmac reminded her to pull out her gun.

"Cosima…" Delphine panted.

Cosima ignored her, her hands shaking as gripped the gun, peering over the ammunition crate they were hidden behind. She fumbled with the safety, swearing. Her voice cracked.

"Cosima," Delphine said again, her hand reaching out and wrapping around Cosima's. "Let me, ma chérie. Please."

Cosima swallowed hard and gave a small nod, relinquishing Sarah's gun.

Delphine shut her eyes, her hand clicking the safety off as she controlled her breathing. "How many?"

"Three," Cosima said, her voice trembling as she stared at Delphine.

"There's no other way out, is there?"

"No."

Delphine pushed herself up from behind the crate and opened fire.


	4. Part XVI - Part XX

** XVI.**

Delphine dropped down, the pistol sliding from her blood slicked hands.

"Delphine," Cosima said hoarsely. "You…"

"Shh…" Breathing was becoming more and more difficult. "We have to move. There are more coming."

"Miss me, ladies? C'mon, let's get you up." Tony grunted as he pulled Delphine up, Cosima pushing her onto her feet. "Gotta move, bitches."

A thunderous bang sounded behind them, and from the satisfied smirk on Tony's face, that was exactly what he had wanted.

"Please don't tell me that was the flash grenade I lent you."

"Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answers to," Tony said, perhaps a little too cheerfully. He frowned when the load between them got heavier. "Yo, carry your side."

"I am carrying my side!" Cosima glanced over as Delphine's head rested on her shoulder. "Shit."

"Oh shit."

"Delphine. Delphine? Wake up. Please?"

"C'mon blondie, wake up for Cos."

**XVII.**

"Holy shite, Cos."

Sarah pushed her hair back from her face as she stared out the hatch of the plane and watched the three figures stumble their way toward the plane. She rushed down the ramp.

"I got this," Cosima said, stumbling along under Delphine's arm, waving Sarah off.

"No, you don't," Sarah said, gently pushing Cosima aside. "Go, I need you to get the plane going. Engines are warmed up already, but there's no way I'm getting it off the ground."

Cosima looked over her shoulder at the figures that were following. Closing in on them, even. The unmistakable crack of a high-calibre sniper rifle rung in the air and the figures hung back.

"What the hell…?"

"Helena," was all Sarah could manage as she pulled Delphine's prone body up the ramp after Cosima.

_Ping!_

Another sniper was firing back.

"Go!"

They scrambled up the ramp, careful to stay out of Helena's sight line. Cosima scrambled into the cockpit, her body a bundle of shaking nerves while Felix descended on Delphine's body that Tony and Sarah laid down in the aisle.

"Oh, god!"

"Apply pressure to it!" Cosima yelled back at them, her voice cracking as she rushed through the flight checklist. _Screw the checklist._ She pushed the engines and pulled back on the throttle, sending them hurtling down the runway.

Sarah watched as the runway shortened, military trucks beginning to spill out on all sides, her knuckles white as she gripped the back of Cosima's chair, leaving Felix, Tony, and Helena to attend to Delphine.

"_C'mon_, Cos."

**XVIII.**

"Did you apply pressure to it?"

"Yes, bloody Christ, we've applied pressure," Felix snapped. "Triage is not my specialty!"

"Is it just a through-and-through? Can you tell?"

"For fuck's sake, Cosima, stop with the backseat driving."

"But she is in front seat," Helena said as she sutured the wound shut with her whiskey covered hands, the sniper rifle resting on the ground beside her.

"Well, one thing I know for sure is that Rachel's not going to like how we've redecorated," Tony muttered as he eyed the growing bloodstain on the carpet.

They were still ascending to cruising altitude when Cosima barrelled past Sarah and dropped to Delphine's side. "You can't leave me again," she whispered. She rummaged through the first aid kit and found an IV line with tear-blurred eyes.

"Damnit," she whispered, as she tried to find a vein in her arm. Three times she pricked her skin. Felix and Tony exchanged glances. Cosima _hated_ needles.

Sarah peered back see what she was doing. "Whoa, Cos! Cosima! What're you doing?"

"I'm O-negative, and she needs blood, like, _yesterday_."

"Shite," Sarah muttered, pulling away from the cockpit now that the plane had levelled out. She rolled up her sleeve, her eyes steeled.

"We're all O-negative."

**XIX.**

"Guys, we have a problem."

"Bloody hell, as if _this_ isn't a problem?" Felix muttered, gesturing to Delphine lying on the floor. Sarah slept on the chair beside her, an IV line hooked up from her arm. He climbed up to the cockpit. "What is it, then?"

Cosima pointed at the fuel gauge which was emptying at an alarming rate. "We're losing fuel faster than we should be."

"What, like there's a hole in the tank or something?"

"Yeah, I mean, I've been flying as low as we can without increasing our fuel consumption and make it easier but… air pressure or not, we're not going to make it back to Toronto."

"How much farther can we get?"

Cosima glanced at the map that was spread out on the seat beside her. "Well, definitely not over the Atlantic. London is probably the nearest. Paris."

"Jesus bloody Christ."

"Cosima…"

It was faint, but Cosima could recognise that voice anywhere, gunshot-induced deafness notwithstanding. Wordlessly, she pushed past Felix and dropped down beside Delphine, grabbing her hand, holding it.

"Hey," she whispered, a smile creeping into her voice as she pressed to back of Delphine's hand to her lips. "Welcome back."

**XX.**

"It's Cosima. She's… not doing well. It's getting worse. The coughing. She had a seizure last night." Sarah sounded tired, as if she hadn't slept in weeks. Delphine was fairly certain that sleeping was few and far between with caring for Cosima's increasingly frail disposition.

"_Merde._ I've got a cure."

"I'll give S a call."

Delphine hesitated, her lips pressing together. "Don't."

"What?"

"You can't trust her. She's not who you think she is, Sarah."

"Yeah, I've heard that before." Sarah sighed on the other end of the line. "So who is she?"

Delphine held her breath. "I can't tell you, I'm sorry."

"Damnit, Delphine! If I can't trust Mrs. S, then who can I trust?"

"Don't trust anyone, Sarah."

Sarah laughed bitterly through the receiver. "And you? Can I trust you?"

Delphine paused. "You can trust me to ensure Cosima's safety."

"Right," Sarah said, her voice stiff. She sighed, relenting. "So how are we going to get the cure to her? She needs it. Fast."

Delphine glanced over her shoulder surreptitiously as she stepped into the Rhine-Main S-Bahn train. "Call Mrs. S as you usually would. I'll take care of the rest."

"What should I tell Cosima, then?"

Delphine shut her eyes, her hand wrapping tightly around the USB drive in her hand. She bit her lip, knowing she was going to regret this - tomorrow, the day after, and forever. "Tell her whatever you hear from Mrs. S."

She could hear the reluctance in Sarah's silence. "This bloody better work. Because Cosima…"

"She's running out of time. I know."


	5. Part XXI - Part XXV

**XXI.**

"It's a simple transaction. Half now, and half when it's arrived and verified." Her German was rusty when she arrived in Frankfurt, but she regained fluency within a few weeks.

She pushed over the silver briefcase under the table with the point of her high-heeled boot and took a long drag on her cigarette as she scanned the dingy decor the pub. The thumping bass drum of the live band rattled the thin clad walls.

Her smuggler stared at her over the table. It was amusing, really. The way that he tried to make it look like he wasn't particularly interested, that he had better jobs to do. But she knew from the moment he picked up the phone and agreed to meet her that she was already overpaying him by agreeing to negotiate the price higher. Not by much, but just enough for him to really _want_ it.

"You want the job or not?" she asked, bored, and slightly impatient. She had an appointment to make.

The man shrugged. "I'll take it."

"Good," she said, sliding over a piece of paper. "This is the destination. No later than tomorrow afternoon, you understand?"

The man waved her instructions away dismissively.

She nodded and left the table, heading outside to the black limousine that awaited. She stared out the window as the buildings passed, the rain streaking across the window.

Shuffling awkwardly out through the door, she glanced back and grabbed the silver briefcase that lay on the seat beside her. She took in a deep breath and looked at the hanger as the limousine rolled away.

**XXII.**

She gasped, her eyes cracking open against the harsh light pointed directly at her. She shook the water from her face. Her abdomen ached. Her wrists strained against the rope that tied her to the chair.

_Who sent you? Who are you working for? _The questions would go on for endless days and unrelenting nights.

She was lead - dragged, her feet didn't work anymore - down a hall by the shoulders and thrown into a room, her cheek scraping against the floor. The palms of her hands spread and ran over the soft thick carpet. She barely had a chance to register how much it felt like _home_ before she was hauled to her feet and dropped into a chair.

"Delphine Cormier." The smile twisted - the woman thought she had the upper hand on her. She tsked softly at the state of her detainee. "I hear there is more to you than just an immunologist."

Delphine stared blandly back, not denying, but not confirming. She hated how her body trembled involuntarily. Shock, she supposed, or trauma.

"You must know who I am, by now," the woman said.

Delphine's lips twitched. "Marion Bowles."

Marion flipped through a folder as if she needed to read it. It was a folder, to Delphine's immense pride, that was ghostly thin. "So. Fluent in three languages. A doctorate in immunology. Graduated early magna cum laude at L'institute Maria Sibylla Meria. And yet…" she smiled thinly, closing the folder, "you have progressed through our interrogation processes admirably."

Delphine could have slept through their conversation, but even in her sleep-deprived and feverish state, she held her trembling lip closed. It was the thought that a mere carpet could transport her to a place where her heart ached and soared that held her hopes. She laughed brokenly.

They could have her body and soul but they could never take her heart.

**XXIII.**

She barely remembered what sunlight looked like.

After a while, they gave up asking her questions and she managed to get at least a few hours of fitful sleep between the blaring music and the clanging of metal against metal. She shivered in the damp. She counted the months that passed, watching as the dark brown roots of her hair grew out.

The world shifted slowly, and then suddenly - the air stilled around her.

Boots marched up to her cell door with staccato precision and the door swung open, squealing on its rusted hinges. Handcuffs were efficiently slapped around her thin wrists and ankles. She stumbled forward by a rough shove from behind, but the guards held her up as she staggered and shuffled out of her cell and down the long corridor.

Marion Bowles stood by the door, speaking with one of the uniformed officers, nodding every so often. She smiled when she noticed that Delphine was watching.

"Dr Cormier," she said, her words cutting like a vicious knife, "you seem to have outlived your usefulness at our facility, so I've arranged your transfer to Project Castor. Perhaps their accommodations will be more… _persuasive_."

She barely had the strength to glare. She struggled, backpedalling against the guards but they overpowered her and shoved her into the back of the idling truck. She tried to rise to her feet, but only got so far as her knees when a bag was thrown over her head. She fought them anyway, the handcuffs digging into her wrists and drawing blood.

Marion was moving her like a pawn, a bargaining chip.

**XXIV.**

Her head throbbed. Perversely, travelling in the back of the truck was the best solid period of sleep she had gotten in a long time. She licked her dry lips and remained limp, her face obscured by the black bag over her face.

"This the new one?" a voice asked, gruff. In command.

A boot snapped to attention on the concrete. "Yes, sir."

"Take it to containment," the other voice said dismissively.

They hauled her up and carried her, the hood slipping off her face as they pulled her out of the back of the truck. The daylight was blinding but she forced herself to stay limp, feigning unconsciousness.

"A doctor, eh?" a man guffawed, flipping through some papers. "I guess we'll be needing one soon."

She didn't get a chance to hear the rest of the conversation as the door slammed behind her.

She awoke under the butt of a rifle.

"Move," the soldier ordered, prodding her sore side. She slowly rose to her feet. "Move!" She stumbled forward.

She marched down the hallway, uncertain of what fate awaited her at the end. Her hands trembled with the effort of walking straight, her head swimming. Two rifles were trained on her as she was led into the medical room.

"Scrub in. You're doing a c-section."

She looked over the man's shoulder at the figure lying on the table, sedated, but clearly in labour. Her throat closed in on itself at sight of that face, and the memory of the last time she cut flesh.

"And if I refuse?"

The man's lip twitched into the slightest of smiles as the guard cocked his pistol to the would-be mother's head. "First, do no harm, doctor."

**XXV.**

"How do you even know that we can trust this?" Felix held up the USB drive, waving it in front of Sarah's face.

Sarah pushed back her hair and shook her head, sinking into a chair. "I don't know, Fe, but it's the best thing that we've got."

"Yeah, and think of where it came from."

"I know, I know, but if there's even a - " she glanced over in the direction of the bed where Cosima slept and lowered her voice " - chance that any of this is true…"

"You do know that this is total bullocks, right?"

"Yeah, yeah." She stood up, pacing.

"And what about Mrs. S? Do you really think that she would do that?"

"I don't know!" Sarah snapped. "All I know is that Mrs. S sent Benjamin to meet with Delphine and now she's…" she couldn't bring herself to say the word dead, "and S is saying that the briefcase was stolen."

"What about the drop?"

Sarah raised her hands in a gesture of defeat. "Nothin'. Didn't see anyone, didn't hear anything. Completely professional." She picked up the USB drive and turned it over. "She sent this to Cosima for a reason, there must be something important on it that we can use."

"You do realise what this means, Sarah?"

"Yeah," Sarah sighed, "and she's not going to like it." She caught Felix's eye. "You can't tell her - Delphine made damned sure I swore to it."

"Well, how do you expect to keep Cosima holed up in this place, pretending to be dead so that Mrs. S won't find out that we have the cure? And how long is that going to last for? Forever?"

"I don't know, just… think of something. I mean the USB drive's gotta be something, right? Just have her work her geek magic on it so we can find out what's on it."

"Bloody Christ, Sarah, do you really want to know what's on it?"

"I don't know, but would be nice to get some bloody answers around here." Sarah shook her head, the movement as Cosima shifted in her sleep catching her eye.

"If not for our sake, then for hers."


	6. Part XXVI - Part XXX

**XXVI.**

Sarah gently pried the laptop from Cosima's fingers and pulled the covers up around her. Carrying the laptop in front of her, she stepped down into the living room and sunk into the sofa, balancing the laptop in her lap. She skimmed through the files that Cosima had decrypted, avoiding the two video files that Delphine had obviously left specifically for Cosima.

"Sarah?" Cosima sat up slowly, pushing her askew glasses straight on her face. "What're you doing?"

Sarah glanced up distractedly. "I wanted to have a look through the files." She bit her lip as she scrolled through. "Maybe we missed something. There's got to be something in here that will give us more answers instead of more questions."

"I've been through it a hundred times, Sarah," Cosima said, her voice hoarse with sleepiness. "Can't it wait until tomorrow?"

"You said that you decrypted the files with your tag number, right?"

"Well, not exactly, but, a form of it, yeah." Cosima frowned. "You think that other tag numbers might be able to decrypt the other parts of it?"

"It's worth a shot, inn't?"

Cosima shook her head and shrugged. "Well, yeah, maybe, but it's not like I know any tag of the numbers. Besides, I'd basically need each clone's genome."

Sarah looked up at Cosima, her eyes glinting with the plan that was hatching in her head.

"Yeah, but we know someone who can get access to them."

**XXVII.**

Cosima drummed her fingers impatiently on the coffee table and checked her phone again. She sat back on the couch, contemplating rolling a joint now that no one was around to supervise her when the phone buzzed. She jumped and picked it up on the first ring.

"Sarah? Are you in?"

"Yeah, I'm in," Sarah said, her voice crackling over the receiver. "Now what am I supposed to be doing exactly?"

Cosima exhaled slowly. "Okay, did you enter in the codes yet?"

Sarah propped the phone up on her shoulder, pressing it against her ear as she unravelled the piece of paper with Cosima's neat handwriting. "Yeah, uh, hang on." She carefully typed the codes into the terminal.

"I still don't get why you didn't get Cal to do it."

"Yeah, well, he's _busy_ right now."

"Really? From where I was standing, it seemed like his schedule was wide open for you."

"Cosima…"

"Fine, fine. Did you get it?"

"Yeah, just… plugging in the key or whatever."

"Remind me why I'm not the one who's stealing sensitive information at DYAD?"

Sarah sighed, rolling her eyes as she watched the transfer bar inch along. "Because your English accent is shite."

"Well, all I'd have to do is glare at people."

"And the dreadlocks?"

"Well…"

"Got it." Sarah pulled the USB drive and shoved it into her pocket. "Oh shite."

"What? What happened? …Sarah?"

The line went dead.

**XXVIII.**

Cosima stared at her phone that lay on the coffee table, her forehead resting in her hand. She fidgeted and turned the screen on again to check the time. The door rattled open and she jumped to her feet.

"Where have you been?"

"Sorry, sorry," Sarah sighed as Felix shut the door behind her, "I ran into Martin and… Just…" She waved her hand in lieu of finishing her sentence.

Cosima sighed, simultaneously relieved and irritated. "Did you get it?"

"Yeah," Sarah said, digging out the USB key from her bra and tossed it to Cosima. She stepped into the bathroom and shrugged out of her dress. "How did Beth ever think that this was comfortable?"

"Maybe because she had actual _class_," Felix retorted as he fixed some tea.

Cosima rolled her eyes as she dug out her laptop and plugged it in. "So what the hell happened?"

"Oh, you know, the usual shite. Martin wanted to know what I was doing there, I told him to sod off."

"Typical," Felix mused. "Y'know, I wonder if he's Rachel's new _personal_ assistant now that Big Dick Paul's gone."

Cosima frowned as she entered in the decryption sequence using the newly acquired sequences skimmed over the screen in front of her. She frowned and tried a few other ones before she finally came to Sarah's. She glanced up as Sarah pulled on her sweater and entered it in. She looked up at Sarah and then down at her screen again. "Uh, well, according to this, he's not."

"What?"

Cosima shook her head and stood so that Sarah could sit down. She went over to the kitchen and poured herself a cup of tea, giving Sarah space to read the encrypted information.

"You've got to be bloody joking," Sarah breathed. "Private contractor?" She looked over at Cosima and Felix.

"What?" Felix said, putting down his tea. "Y'think he could be like Paul? Part of Project Castor? A ghost?"

"I don't know. Could be." Cosima shrugged. "Probably."

**XXIX.**

"Holy shite," Sarah muttered as she scrolled through the files. "Cos, come take a look at this."

Cosima wandered over from the kitchen and leaned over the back of the couch to peer over Sarah's shoulder. "It looks like blueprints."

"Yeah," Sarah said, jabbing a finger at the screen, "take a look at that."

"Shit… Isn't that…?"

"Yeah, that's definitely Project Castor."

"Why are there blueprints of a Project Castor facility? And how…? Wait, scroll back."

Sarah quickly switched back to the previous screen.

"Is that a transfer record? Zoom in a bit, I can't make out the name."

"Holy shite."

"Oh my god."

Sarah twisted around and looked at Cosima, the colour drained from her face. "I thought she decided to leave to find that boyfriend of hers but…"

Cosima exhaled as she processed the new information. "What's the date say?" Sarah panned the screen over to the date stamp. She squinted at it. "That was…"

"The day after she came back, yeah?"

"But why would they take her, anyway? Why not one of us? You, me, or Alison would have been way easier targets."

Sarah shook her head. "I have no idea. Maybe it has to do with the fertility thing?"

"Maybe…" Cosima sighed. "But still, she's the trained assassin."

"Well, that's just it, yeah? She wouldn't be missed, would she?"

Cosima sunk into a chair, watching Sarah's fidgetting get worse. "Sarah…" she warned.

"I _know _but she's my _sister_, Cos. She didn't asked to get lumped in with them. Bloody Christ, after what the Proletheans did to her…"

"Even though I agree with what you're thinking, Project Castor is military, Sarah, it's not going to be easy this time around."

Sarah studied the screen for a moment. "We have the blueprints, yeah? We could find a way to break her out."

"Yeah, and escape how?" Cosima picked up the laptop and set it in her lap, studying the blueprints, resting her forehead against the tips of her fingers.

"I don't know." Sarah clenched her jaw in frustration and pushed her hand through her hair as Cosima flipped through the files, her face set with grim determination. "What are you doing?"

"If Delphine found this… There has to be _something_ on here that will help us," said Cosima, glancing up. "Helena is my sister, too."

**XXX.**

"I really don't think this is a good idea, Sarah." Cosima stared at the roughly written draft and shook her head. "If my parents find out about this…"

"Your parents aren't going to find out about it, Cos," Sarah said exasperatedly. "You said it yourself, your parents have no idea that you were dying."

Cosima held up a finger. "Cured, thanks," she corrected. "But seriously, this is going to be totally messed. How are we certain that it's going to get to her anyway?"

"Contacts on the inside, remember? Besides, if it doesn't work then…" Sarah sighed. "Look, are we going to do this or not?"

Cosima read it over again and shut her eyes. "Fine, fine." She exhaled slowly. "Let's do it."

Sarah sighed as she looked over the reams of paper taped over the map, pinned to one of Felix's largest canvasses, rerunning the plan over in her head. "Are you sure you can fly a private jet, Cos?"

Cosima looked up from her phone. "Yeah, that's like… the one thing I'm sure of out of this entire crazy plan. It's more of a matter of getting one…" she trailed off doubtfully.

"We'll get one. Just make the call."

Cosima waved distractedly as she pressed her phone against her ear. "Yeah, hello? Can you give me the email for submissions for ads in your paper?"

She paused while the person on the other line spoke.

"Obituaries."


	7. Part XXXI - Part XXXV

**XXXI.**

Sarah sighed. "Well, there's always Rachel."

"Are you effing serious?" Felix slammed down his half-finished Guinness.

"Well, where else do you suppose we're going to get a private jet?"

"And what about Martin?"

Sarah bit her lip thoughtfully, looking at Mrs. S's signature on Helena's transfer papers. "Divide and conquer, yeah? We'll use Marion to get him out of the way long enough to get the plane."

"So what, tell her that Martin's a mole and to investigate him?"

"Basically."

Felix looked at the papers and shook his head. "Have you spoken to Cosima about this?" he asked, pointing to Mrs. S's signature.

"No, no way."

"Well, why not? She's part of this too, isn't she?"

Sarah gaze Felix an exasperated look. "Y'think I'm going to tell Cos that Siobhan sold Helena out to Project Castor and that she says that the cure was stolen? If Delphine hadn't stepped up and smuggled the cure to us…"

"But what if it wasn't Mrs. S?"

"Bloody hell, Fe, I _don't know_, but I sure as hell don't trust any of them."

"Well, what about Cal?"

"Uh uh, not happening. He's the one who contacted Marion." Sarah took a sip of her bourbon. "For all we bloody know, he could be in on it."

Felix rolled his eyes, leaning back in his chair. "You're starting to sound like Alison." He sighed, inspecting his nails. "Speaking of which, where _is_ Alison?"

"Plausible deniability. She doesn't want to have any part in the planning process."

"Of course she wouldn't." Felix muttered. "So where are we going to get the equipment to pull this off? I mean, we're going to need guns, ammunition, god knows what else."

"Equipment is the thing I'm least worried about," Sarah said with a nod. "Art's supplying us with bulletproof vests, too."

Felix frowned in incomprehension. "Do you have a stash of weapons that I don't know about?"

"I don't," Sarah gave a crooked smile as she pulled out a key. "But Helena does."

"You've got to be bloody joking."

**XXXII.**

It didn't take long before they realised that they needed her to take care of the child and to monitor Helena's recovery; to administer medical tests and draw samples. The metaphorical gun against Helena's head was the only reason why she complied. The baby would be too valuable to lose. And when the time came that Delphine had outlived her stay, an exit strategy was simple enough.

It was a fine line between knowing too much and knowing too little in her precarious situation. She kept her eyes and ears open. The work itself was telling enough; they were looking to find a viable method of reproduction, but where they had succeeded and then subsequently failed she couldn't discern.

"Glad to see that you're settling in, Dr. Cormier."

She looked up from her microscope in surprise at the familiar voice. "You…!"

"Me," he smiled, pulling out the folder that he held under his arm.

"But you're Rachel's…" She bit back the word _assistant_.

"Mm, yes, that was a very convenient position." Martin looked down at the folder in his hands. "I'm just here to touch base, make sure you're acclimating to your new position well."

She glared at him, shaking with the effort to contain her rage. "What is that you want?"

Martin smiled and shrugged. "Well, actually, many things. But, I heard that you are cooperating and I thought that you deserved a reward for that," he said, sliding over the newspaper clipping.

Her heart plummeted when she saw the grainy photograph. She picked it up off the table reverently, her fingers brushing over the familiar face. She stared at it and then launched herself at him, grabbing him by the jacket and snarled. "You! This is your fault! Cosima's death is on your hands!"

Rough hands grabbed her, pulling her off of him and shoved her onto the ground, the point of a pistol digging into her cheek with her arm twisted painfully around and pinned to her back.

Martin stared impassively at her, then looked over at the newspaper clipping lying crumpled on the floor as he straightened his suit. "Keep it, if you like."

She fought against the guards who dragged her back to her cell and threw her on the cold concrete floor in an unceremonious heap, the wadded up paper landing beside her. She clutched it to her chest like a lifeline.

**XXXIII.**

She stared at it long enough for the text and photograph to burn into her retinas. It was a tattered piece of paper, fraying, with splotching water damage on it, making the words bleed. She knew them by heart.

_Passed on March 21, 2014 at home among friends in Toronto. She is survived by her parents. A celebration of life will be held on April 7, 2014 at 4:00pm at the Glendale Community Centre at 3990 Major MacKenzie Drive E, Markham._

They upped her security, if only slightly, after the outburst against Martin. An extra guard with a rifle - useless in short range, she knew, but that was to her advantage.

She timed the distance between her cell and the lab where Helena's child was being kept. Four minutes, one hundred and ten steps until a right, then three hundred and seven steps and right, twenty steps and the lab door would be on the left. Finding Helena was harder but given the movements in the facility, she guessed that Helena was being held in a higher security area. Ten minutes to find her, she hoped, would be enough. Ten minutes to bring her inside after transferring, which meant it would take a little less than that to get back outside for extraction.

Days and nights bled together as she waited, biding her time. She pulled the digital watch she had stolen off the guard when he was pulling her away from Martin from under between the mattress and the bed and wrapped the strap around her wrist. Her body tensed, coiling, ready, waiting. Time was a precious commodity.

She glanced at her watch as the guards started unlocking the door to escort her to the lab.

_April 7. 3:30pm._

It was time.

**XXXIV.**

"You're okay," she whispered, "you're going to be okay."

Her hand pressed against the forehead as she leaned in close, burying her face in the space between chin and beating chest. Reluctantly, she pulled away, her eyes hardening as she strode forward. She dropped into her seat, clipping the harness on around her.

"All good back there?"

"Yeah," Sarah shouted back up the aisle. She leaned over and tightened the belt around Delphine's waist, propped up in the seat next to her.

Cosima threw on her headset, pulling the microphone arm down. She grabbed the yoke with both hands. The plane descended, turbulence rattling the glasses in the mini bar, stashed away in the back of the plane.

"May day, may day, may day."

She looked beside her at the map strewn over the co-pilot seat. She frowned, glancing at the radio and slapped it with her palm. She switched the transponder over, rolling her eyes as she pushed the microphone out of her face.

"This would be a lot easier if the radio worked," she grumbled just as another air pocket shook the plane. She gripped the rattling yoke with white knuckles. "Damn it."

She let the plane glide lower and lower, banking to the left to check the landing strip as she ignored the flashing amber light on the dash and the spinning dials. The passengers were eerily silent behind her. She looked out the window at the trees that were waving at her in a blur, relieved when she saw the green light that the tower had given her.

She tugged on the lever to deploy the landing gear, her eyes flitting back and forth from out the window to the screen in front of her. The red LED flashed and she swore. She slammed the the lever again.

"Y'alright there, Cos?" There was a hint of panic in Sarah's voice.

"Yeah," Cosima lied.

"This better not be like the car ride over," Felix muttered, "or we are officially done for."

Cosima cracked a grin at that as she looked down at the yoke and took in a deep breath. She took one final look behind her, looking at their faces in turn: Sarah, strong and determined, Felix, afraid but desperately trying to alleviate the tension, Tony, a carefully manicured expression of boredom like a _fuck you_ to the reality they lived in, Helena, bewildered, fascinated, and trusting as she clung tightly to the bundle in her lap.

And Delphine, her eyes half-opened, a small reassuring smile flitting across her lips.

"Hang tight, this is going to be rough landing."

**XXXV.**

"Cos? _Cosima?_"

Sarah fumbled with her seat belt and rushed forward, scrambling through the narrow entry to the cockpit. "Shite," she whispered, watching blood stream down the side of her sister's face. "Cos, wake up!" She checked the pulse as she hurriedly unbuckled the straps that held Cosima to her seat.

"Shit…" Cosima winced, her hand reaching up and touching her face, frowning in incomprehension at the sticky blood that transferred to her hand. "Is everyone okay?"

Sarah laughed, the tension in her gut easing. "Yeah, you did good, geek," she said, though her voice trembled. "C'mon, let's get you out of here."

"Delphine…"

"She's fine. Felix's got her, alright?" Sarah gently pulled Cosima out of the seat, holding onto her tightly as she guided her out and down the ramp, feeling Cosima's body tremble against hers from shock.

"The plane…"

Sarah grunted as she practically lifted Cosima up - she was so _light_, she realised with a start - so she wouldn't trip over the gap. "Cos, don't worry about it. Rachel will be pissed but everyone's fine, that's what matters, yeah?

"Yeah, yeah," Cosima muttered. A slow grin split across her face as she looked over at Delphine. "Say, you wouldn't happen to have any water, would you? I'm thirsty."

"Not right now, but as soon as Tony gets a car, we can get some, yeah?"

"Sure, sure," Cosima said with a weak wave of her shaking hands. "I don't feel so good…"

Sarah grimaced as she let Cosima lower herself to the ground, heaving up bile. She rubbed her hand against Cosima's back comfortingly. "Y'alright?"

"Yeah," Cosima said, wiping her lips with the back of her hand.

A minivan drove up to them, screeching to a halt on the tarmac. Tony jumped out, rushing over to Sarah and Cosima and threw Cosima's arm over his shoulder.

"You losers want to get out of here, or what?"


	8. Part XXXVI - Part XL

**XXXVI.**

The van swerved into the gas station, the tires crunching over the curb.

"Shit, Tony," Cosima winced, looking over at Delphine's wound, "take it easy, dude."

"Sorry, adrenaline is making me crazy."

Sarah bit her lip and fidgetted, worrying her sweater sleeve to a fray. She twisted around in her seat to look at Delphine and Cosima. "How's she doing?"

"Better, I think. Her breathing's easier." Cosima grimaced as they pulled to an abrupt halt. "I could use an aspirin or something though."

"I'm awake," Delphine murmured, a smile playing on her lips as she readjusted her head on the makeshift pillow of Cosima's lap. She reached up and touched the side of Cosima's forehead, where a scab was beginning to form. "I'm okay. Although we should get some ibuprofen for your concussion."

"Right," Sarah said, straightening. "Painkillers," she muttered, opening the door. "Fe —"

"I know, I know," Felix grumbled, pulling open the door and following. "This would be a lot easier if we had money, you know."

Helena crawled out after Felix, watching as Tony started to fill the tank with gas, giving Cosima and Delphine some much needed privacy.

"Yeah, and we're going to need a burner phone. You remember Alison's number, yeah?."

"Yeah. Why? I thought we were keeping her out of this?"

"Yeah, well, we need plane tickets now - and plane tickets cost money, yeah?"

"Well, what about passports? Security? There was a reason why we needed a private jet."

"Shit… And her kid, too." Sarah ran her hand through her hair, her mind travelling a mile a minute as she watched Helena speak with Tony, her baby bundled up in her arms. "We're going to need someone to make some documents."

"We could call Mrs. S," Felix hazarded, rolling his eyes under Sarah's glare. "We're in the middle-of-nowhere in France, Sarah. Where do you expect to pick someone up who can do that? Moulin Rouge?"

"I'll think of something," Sarah muttered as she pulled open the door to the convenience store. "Bloody Christ, what a mess."

**XXXVII.**

"How are you feeling?" Cosima brushed a brown curl out of Delphine's eyes, their hands clasped together.

"Better," Delphine said, her lips quirking into a smile. "I had no idea that you were a pilot."

Cosima grinned. "You and me both."

"Oh?" Delphine's brows lifted in amusement.

"Well, I mean I have my recreational license but… it doesn't exactly qualify for flying private jets."

"I suppose not." The corners of Delphine's eyes crinkled in amusement, then faded to seriousness. "You decoded the USB drive."

Cosima let out a long breath and a nod, biting her lip. "I thought…"

"I know," Delphine whispered, reaching up with her free hand and touching Cosima's cheek. "I didn't know if…" she trailed off, licking her lips.

"If you'd make it?" Cosima supplied.

"Well, that, too. But if someone else found the information then… I needed to be sure that they would think I was dead."

"But _why_?"

Delphine exhaled slowly, her eyes a study of pain. Cosima's hand tightened around hers. "Because… I need to protect you."

"Well, you got the cure."

"No, that's only half of it," Delphine said softly, forcefully. "Castor made a deal with Topside to ensure Sarah and Kira's safety from the Neolutionists. But not yours."

"What do you mean?"

"Mrs. S —"

The doors swung open, allowing Sarah, Felix, Helena, and Tony to breathlessly pile into the van. Tony gunned the engine while everyone else was fumbling for their seat belts and peeled away from the gas station, leaving the irate shopkeeper in the dust.

"Fuck," Tony swore, slamming a fist against the wheel, "We're going to have to ditch the van now."

**XXXVIII.**

Leather boots kicked at the unkempt grass on the side of the road. "There is no way I'm letting Cosima get on a plane alone with Delphine," Sarah growled.

Felix eyed her warily. "Do you seriously not trust Delphine?"

"I trust her," Sarah said tersely. "If you haven't noticed, Fe, she just got bloody shot. Cosima's concussed. They both need to be looked at."

"Well, we could go to the hospital…"

"No, we can't go to the bloody hospital, they're going to have to report the gun shot wound. And Cosima…"

"Right," Felix muttered, deflated. He leaned against the hood of the car and crossed his arms, watching Sarah pace back and forth. "So what are you thinking?"

"We can't all of us be on the same flight. So either I go with Delphine and Cosima; and you, Tony, and Helena can take another flight," Sarah mused aloud. "Or, Tony goes with Delphine and Cosima, and I'm with you and Helena."

Felix considered it. "And Helena's daughter." He glanced over his shoulder through the windshield of the car. "Bloody Christ, I can't believe she's a mother."

"Yeah, me too." Sarah shook her head. "Reckon you can handle the three of them?"

"Yeah, I suppose." Felix sighed, turning the phone over in his hands. "You worried about Cosima?"

Sarah nodded. "She's still not 100% and she just got a concussion…"

"She's about as well as one could hope."

"I know, I know," Sarah sighed. "Just make the call, yeah? And make sure you get business class for Cosima and Delphine."

Felix nodded, dialing, the phone pressed against his ear as he waited for the call to connect. "Alison? Hey, yeah, uh… Long story but we need money and plane tickets from Lyons, France to Toronto." He grimaced, pulling the phone from his ear as he fumbled to adjust the volume. "We're fine." He drummed his fingers on the hood of the car. "Just buy the tickets, Alison. Separate flights. Tomorrow. I know it's not going to be on sale, but we need it now. We're going to need two business class and an economy on the first flight for Delphine, Cosima, and Sarah. And three economy on the second flight for me, Tony, and Helena. And an infant ticket." He rolled his eyes as Alison exploded on the other end. "Like I said, it's a long story. I'll explain when we get back."

Sarah laughed, rolling her eyes as Felix hung up.

"Well, that's sorted."

Sarah eyed the license plate on the car. "Now we just have to figure out how to get past security. Passports and all."

**XXXIX.**

"Cosima," Delphine shook Cosima awake. "Wake up. You can't fall asleep yet."

"Mm, yeah," Cosima mumbled. "Concussion, right?" She blinked slowly. "Where are we?"

"Outside Lyons. We're trying to secure plane tickets. Felix is calling Alison to see if she can purchase them for us." Delphine watched as Helena grinned widely at the bundle in her arms, walking along the side of the road not far from where they were parked. Tony trudged along the concrete beside her. "We're going to need to get forged documents to get on the plane."

"Well, how?" Cosima sighed. "Sarah's not trusting Mrs. S so that's not going to work. Do you know anyone?"

Delphine glanced away, hesitating, then looked back at Cosima. "I do."

Cosima studied Delphine for a moment and then exhaled slowly. "Do I want to know?"

Delphine allowed herself a brief smile. "I have a few contacts."

"Contacts," Cosima repeated, deadpan. "Are you like some sort of international badass spy or something?"

Delphine laughed. "No, not exactly." She shifted, grimacing and sucked in a breath sharply as pain lanced through her body.

"You okay?" Cosima's gaze skittered from Delphine's face to her blood-stained shirt and then back again. Worry lines creased her forehead. "We should get to a hospital."

"No, no hospital," Delphine hissed, shutting her eyes as a wave of nausea passed. Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the edge of the seat. "They'll ask questions."

"Okay, maybe not the hospital," Cosima sighed. "What about a doctor? You said you had contacts."

"Cosima," Delphine shook her head, exhaling painfully, "I _am_ a doctor."

"I know, but…"

"_Cosima._"

"What?"

"I… Je t'aime."

**XL.**

"Get in, get out," Tony said, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly as he pushed himself up from the couch in their hotel room. "Easy enough."

Delphine nodded, leaning forward just enough to push the small bundle of money toward Tony on the coffee table in front of her. She settled back, sinking into the couch cushions whilst Cosima slept peacefully against her shoulder. "Don't let him try to negotiate with you. The price is set. Half now, half when we receive the passports."

Sarah leaned against the wall beside her as she watched Delphine's expression shift from tender to cold, providing a stark contrast against Cosima's blissful expression as she slept. "Are you sure this is going to work?"

"Everything has more or less worked out so far, no?" Delphine pointed out. "I trust him enough to get the job done and be discreet. The rest…"

Sarah sighed, resting her head against the wall with a dull thud. "How do you know he's not going to sell us out, anyway?" She crossed her arms, eyeing the small wad of bills that Tony stuffed into his jacket. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that's definitely not enough for six international passports in just over twenty four hours."

Delphine exhaled slowly, her gaze flickering down to Cosima. "He owes me a life debt."

Sarah exchanged glances with Tony, their grave expressions identical.

"So," Tony said, "basically you saved his life."

Delphine shut her eyes, resting her head against the pillow behind her. "In a way," she replied enigmatically.

"This 'friend' of yours," Sarah said, her eyes narrowing suspiciously, "is he a friend or…?"

Delphine paused thoughtfully, her lips pressing together. "A friend," she said, after careful consideration, the word heavy on her tongue.

Sarah rolled her eyes, biting back a sniping remark. Delphine's hesitation did not bode well. The cold weight tucked into the back of her jeans, pressing into the small of her back provided little to comfort her.

Delphine looked at the clock, slipping her hand into Cosima's and thoughtlessly threading their fingers together. "You should get going."


	9. Part XLI - Part XLV

**XLI.**

Sarah ground her teeth as she glared out the window, her forehead pressed against it.

Tony glanced cautiously over. "So," he said, hesitantly breaking the silence. "That went well." Understatement of the year.

"Yeah," Sarah scoffed, lifting her head from the glass pane beside her. "Bloody Christ."

"So what the hell was that, Sarah?"

"Nothing, just…"

"Stop with the bullshit already," Tony snapped as he jerked the wheel into a sharp turn. "I need to know. Especially since you basically told him who I was."

Sarah looked over at Tony and slouched in her seat, relenting after a long sigh. "I knew him. Or thought I knew him." She turned the gun in her lap as it shifted with the turn of the car. "I dunno."

"You knew him," Tony repeated, trying to swallow his irritation. "Like friends or…?"

"For fuck's sake, Tony - "

"Oh shut up! You were pretty friendly from where I was watching. So who is he, Sarah?"

Sarah sighed. "His name is Cal. And he's Kira's father."

The car screeched to a halt. "Come again?"

"You heard me right."

"Holy fucking hell."

"Yeah, tell me about it." Sarah's jaw set as her voice turned to a low growl. "I'm going to have to have to speak with Delphine."

**XLII.**

Delphine awoke in a nervous sweat, her eyes automatically scanning the room. The warm body that lay against her rose and fell in a steady rhythm as she lifted her head off the pillow to look out the small crack between the window curtains, revealing the scattered twinkling of night lights. She tested her body, hissing softly at the sharp pain stemming from her abdomen.

"Cosima," she whispered, nudging the girl beside her into wakefulness. She slowly disentangled her fingers from Cosima's. "Cosima."

They hadn't bothered with slipping under the sheets. Someone had thoughtfully turned off the lights in the hotel room before leaving, the only light coming from the bathroom where the door was left ajar.

"Mm?" Cosima mumbled, stirring, her glasses askew on her face from their impromptu nap on the bed. She straightened her glasses in an absentminded motion. "What?"

The air conditioner hummed quietly beneath the window. Delphine shivered. Something felt _off_. Her body tensed as the feeling of imminent danger grew, her heart beginning to pound.

"We're not safe here."

"What do you mean?" Cosima sat up slowly, laughing a little. She pressed her palm against Delphine's cheek. "We're fine. We're safe."

Their heads snapped to the door as the lock slowly slid and unlatched itself. The hinges creaked just slightly as they could hear the footfalls of uninvited guests. Cosima looked at her, bewildered terror written plain on her dimly lit face.

She took Cosima's hand from her face, and squeezed. Her arms instinctively pulled Cosima's trembling body protectively close.

_They found us._

**XLIII.**

"What was that noise?"

"Probably some drunk dropping a wine glass or something," Felix rolled his eyes as the elevator door opened and stepped into the hallway. "Or, you know, could've been science girlfriends' wild and crazy - "

Sarah shushed him with a raised hand and a shake of her head as she strode down the hallway, sidestepping a gentleman who was hurrying to catch the elevator.

"Asshole," Tony muttered, rubbing his shoulder as he followed Sarah and Felix down the hall. He glanced behind him as the the elevator closed, shooting the man who bumped into him a dirty look.

"Holy shite," Sarah whispered, stopped in front of the Cosima and Delphine's hotel door, left hanging ajar.

"Fuck," Tony whispered as he pulled his gun out. Felix backed into the hallway.

Sarah pushed the door open, letting it creak on its hinges as she freed her gun from her waistband.

"Cosima…?" she called cautiously as she slowly stepped inside. "Delphine?"

Her hands shook as she inched forward, dread filling a knot in her throat at the splash of blood on the baseboard, illuminated from the hallway lights. She groped for the light.

"Oh god," she whispered.

Felix retched behind her from his view in the hallway. Tony held the cuff of his sleeve up to his mouth, fighting the urge to vomit.

The gun slipped from Sarah's hand as her knees buckled beneath her, the colour draining from her face. "No…"

Tony dragged his gaze away from the blood and massacre and pulled Sarah to her feet. "We have to go. Sarah."

"Cosima…"

"_Now_, Sarah."

**XLIV.**

"Where the bloody hell are we supposed to go?"

"I don't know," Sarah said, her palm pressed against her forehead.

"Where is sestra?"

Sarah shut her eyes, trying to push the image from her head. "Gone, Helena, just…"

Tony swerved and glanced in the rear view. "Well how do we know who to trust? It's not like we can check into another hotel now that our money's blown."

Sarah looked down at the phone in her lap. "_I don't know,_" she repeated irritably. She turned the phone over in her hand.

"What're you thinking?"

Sarah looked at Felix and then back at Tony.

"No," Tony shook his head. "No way, Sarah. We're not doing that."

Sarah shook her head. "Do we have a better alternative?"

Tony sighed, defeated.

"Better alternative than what?" Felix demanded, leaning forward into the space between Tony and Sarah's seats while Sarah dialed.

"Hey, uh… I know this isn't a good time but… I, we really need your help."

Felix looked at Tony, bewildered. "Who's she calling?"

Tony sighed. "Her baby daddy."

"_Cal?_"

"Kira's father? He is good man."

"How does everyone know who this Cal guy is but me?"

"I have never met him," Helena chimed.

Tony sighed. "Well, at least there's that."

**XLV.**

_"Can I trust you, Cal?"_

_"Yes, of course, Sarah. What do you need?"_

Sarah collapsed into the chair while the others staggered into Cal's small apartment. Cal leaned out of the doorway, checking to see if anyone had seen them enter and shut the door, locking it.

"What happened?"

Sarah buried her face in her hands and Felix rubbed her shoulder comfortingly as she began to shake. Tony stared tonelessly at the carpet.

"Don't ask," he said softly while Helena gently rocked her child back and forth. "It's… not pleasant."

Cal looked at the small, defeated group. "Where's Delphine and Cosima?"

They all looked up at him with haunted expressions.

Cal looked at each of them in turn, the meaning of their absence sinking in. "I'm sorry. God, Sarah, I'm really sorry."

"What difference does it make?" Sarah muttered, wiping her eyes, streaking mascara and eye shadow as she stood up to go to the bathroom. "You still on for the passports, yeah?"

Cal glanced to Felix briefly. "Yeah, just… It's a work in progress." He looked to the kitchen table where the pile of photographs and half-made documents lay.

Sarah shut the door behind her while Tony and Felix exchanged awkward glances.

Tony nodded to the table where the passports were. "Those them?"

"Yeah," Cal nodded, tucking his hands in his pockets. "I just finished a few of them."

Tony took one, flipping through it experimentally and then shut it abruptly and set it down like it was venomous.

Cal bit his lip. Three more passports to go.


End file.
